Star Trek’s great unspoken tragedy is Picard’s love life
In the season 2 premiere of Star Trek: Picard, television’s beloved starship captain-turned-vintner (Patrick Stewart) shares a bottle of wine with Laris (Orla Brady), a retired Romulan spy who has been his friend and housekeeper for a decade. Laris, recently widowed, decides to act on their long-simmering attraction, but Picard hesitates and spoils the moment. This leads Picard to reflect back on his life and wonder — after all the worlds he’s saved and the lives he’s touched, how is it that the great Jean-Luc Picard has spent his golden years alone?
This episode, “The Star Gazer,” teases that the coming season will reveal some deep-seated trauma involving his sainted mother Yvette that has fueled his intimacy issues throughout his life. However, Star Trek: The Next Generation has already offered plenty of evidence to explain Jean-Luc Picard’s bachelorhood. The Picard of TNG is a romantic when it comes to art, history, and exploration, but guards his personal feelings very closely. When he first takes command of the Enterprise, he makes himself as impenetrable and unapproachable as possible, carefully curating an image of perfect professionalism.
Over the course of seven years, Captain Picard becomes a friend or mentor to every member of his senior staff, but rarely shares as much of himself as he receives from others. His desire to hide the vulnerable parts of himself has always been framed as a side-effect of the discipline required to achieve and maintain the most prestigious posting in Starfleet.
His journey as we’ve known it begins in childhood, when Jean-Luc decides at a young age that his destiny is to command a Federation starship. Starfleet’s standards are daunting, and Picard throws himself into the tireless
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